Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Movie Crush: Janet Varney on Tron
Transcript
- 0:24Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush. This is Chuck
- 0:27Speaker 1: Bryant and this is episode one. Very excited to welcome everyone.
- 0:32Speaker 1: If you're coming over from stuff you should know, then
- 0:35Speaker 1: thanks for your support. If you're just a movie fan
- 0:38Speaker 1: in general and happened upon this, then uh, welcome as
- 0:42Speaker 1: well into our studio here at Pont City Market in Atlanta, Georgia. So, guys,
- 0:49Speaker 1: I am so excited about this show. I'm so excited
- 0:53Speaker 1: about episode one because Janet Varney, i gotta say, is
- 0:58Speaker 1: probably the best Episode one guest and all the podcast history.
- 1:03Speaker 1: She's a she's a pal of mine. I met Janet Um.
- 1:07Speaker 1: I met Janet a few years ago at her comedy
- 1:10Speaker 1: festival that she co created many years ago, Sketch Fest
- 1:13Speaker 1: in San Francisco every January, and for for my money,
- 1:17Speaker 1: it's the best comedy festival in the land. And she's
- 1:21Speaker 1: been kind enough to ask Josh and I'd have performed
- 1:23Speaker 1: there for the past few years and it's become a
- 1:25Speaker 1: little tradition for us. And Janet is just awesome. She
- 1:29Speaker 1: is a very, very talented actress. She's a gifted improv comedian,
- 1:35Speaker 1: and she's smart and funny and just as kind of
- 1:39Speaker 1: a soul as you would ever hope to meet. So
- 1:41Speaker 1: she was here shooting in Atlanta, so I had her
- 1:43Speaker 1: in the studio, which is great. She was shooting season
- 1:47Speaker 1: two of her awesome, awesome show on if C, Stand
- 1:50Speaker 1: Against Evil, which actually just premiered yesterday on i f C.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Season two just premiered, so check that out. It's uh,
- 1:58Speaker 1: it's a really great show. It's the It's Dana Gould's
- 2:01Speaker 1: comic take on The Zombie Show, which, uh, if you
- 2:05Speaker 1: haven't seen it, bene season one and then check out
- 2:09Speaker 1: season two on i f C right now. Uh. So, anyway,
- 2:12Speaker 1: Janet was here shooting that. And the last thing that
- 2:14Speaker 1: people want to do when they're shooting a TV show
- 2:16Speaker 1: and the hot, hot summer of Atlanta, working a lot
- 2:20Speaker 1: of nights, is to come in and record a silly
- 2:23Speaker 1: old podcast. But Janet is a pal and very loyal
- 2:28Speaker 1: person and friend, and so she was. She was great.
- 2:30Speaker 1: She came in here, We killed it. We talked about
- 2:33Speaker 1: the movie Tron, the original obviously from the Disney picture
- 2:38Speaker 1: with Jeff Bridges and Bruce Box Lightner, Sindey Morgan, David Warner,
- 2:42Speaker 1: written and directed by Steven Lisberger. Way Ahead of its time.
- 2:46Speaker 1: We both agreed, and um, this is episode one. And
- 2:49Speaker 1: you'll notice here this was such an early episode that
- 2:53Speaker 1: as we get started here, uh, in our conversation, I
- 2:57Speaker 1: didn't even have a title for movie Crush yet. But
- 3:00Speaker 1: then I did get a title from my good good
- 3:03Speaker 1: friend in real life, Scott Ippolito. Scott's one of my
- 3:07Speaker 1: best friends, and I threw it out to him and said, hey,
- 3:10Speaker 1: what should I call this thing? And I gave him
- 3:13Speaker 1: the the idea and he went, how about movie crush?
- 3:16Speaker 1: And it was just that simple. So we we talked
- 3:19Speaker 1: a little bit about that at first, which was kind
- 3:21Speaker 1: of fun. So here we go with Janet Varney and Tron.
- 3:29Speaker 1: This show is so new, I don't have a title
- 3:31Speaker 1: for it. This is very exciting. Should we just spend
- 3:33Speaker 1: the whole time trying to figure out where the title is? Well,
- 3:35Speaker 1: it's funny. I was gonna call it like something dumb
- 3:39Speaker 1: and on the notes, like my favorite movie, but then
- 3:42Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want people to think it's
- 3:43Speaker 1: my favorite movie? About what about what's your favorite movie?
- 3:47Speaker 1: Notable person? And that's a bad title. So but all
- 3:51Speaker 1: those variations of all those things were taken, and that's
- 3:54Speaker 1: the thing about podcasting, and someone can do a show
- 3:57Speaker 1: for a month eight years a go and it's sort
- 4:01Speaker 1: of taken. Yeah, Like if you go to start something up,
- 4:04Speaker 1: they could always say, hey, I had that first story. Yeah,
- 4:06Speaker 1: when I've started my podcast, uh, which is now and
- 4:09Speaker 1: has always been the j V Club to the Public,
- 4:11Speaker 1: which is one of the greatest names ever. By the way,
- 4:13Speaker 1: that worked out. That worked out for me. I'm glad
- 4:15Speaker 1: about that. But I was originally and maybe that's for
- 4:19Speaker 1: the best, because this other I was going to call
- 4:21Speaker 1: I was a teenage podcast with this sort of you know,
- 4:24Speaker 1: like sixties era monster movie kind of theme to it.
- 4:28Speaker 1: But someone had a had had had a podcast where
- 4:30Speaker 1: they did a handful of episodes a couple of years
- 4:32Speaker 1: back called I was a teenage podcast. So I had
- 4:34Speaker 1: to throw that away. Those people the worst, the ones
- 4:37Speaker 1: that starts something and don't succeed, and then they're like
- 4:41Speaker 1: give me, like all of us, like all of us
- 4:45Speaker 1: at one point, all right, listen, here's some I do improve.
- 4:49Speaker 1: I surely can come up with some. My first instinct
- 4:52Speaker 1: was to suggest Chuck's Flicks instead of chicks Flicks, like
- 4:56Speaker 1: chick flicks, and then I thought it could be called
- 4:58Speaker 1: chucks flux. That's they won't know what it just sings.
- 5:07Speaker 1: My friend. I did ask my friend, who's great at
- 5:09Speaker 1: titling things, and he said, what about the confession stand Oh,
- 5:15Speaker 1: the concessions. But then that sounds like you really are
- 5:19Speaker 1: getting into it. Well, but it also sounds like it
- 5:22Speaker 1: would be just about guilty pleasures exactly, like you have
- 5:25Speaker 1: to confess that, and no one would confess like I
- 5:28Speaker 1: gotta say, like the Godfather's my favorite, right, don't tell anyone? Yeah,
- 5:32Speaker 1: something to say with pride. So I'm kind of big
- 5:34Speaker 1: ground at zero right now. I have no idea. And
- 5:37Speaker 1: then I thought about something like like um Psycho Psycho's
- 5:43Speaker 1: Godfather's and street cars named desire, like something big and
- 5:48Speaker 1: grand that just sounds like the title of a book.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Well then has a coal and after it, well, no,
- 5:53Speaker 1: it was. There was that book about movies called Stole It.
- 5:58Speaker 1: There was a book about seventies filming and called Easy
- 6:00Speaker 1: Writers and Raging Bulls, which I was like, I can
- 6:03Speaker 1: just rip that off, but I guess I can't because
- 6:05Speaker 1: that's the first said. And you don't even know the book.
- 6:08Speaker 1: It's a coffee table book. Without me knowing it's a
- 6:10Speaker 1: coffee table book. Well it later, okay, but what is
- 6:13Speaker 1: your bringing that up? Because now that's just going to
- 6:15Speaker 1: eat away and everything I would have said, I'm just
- 6:18Speaker 1: going to only be thinking about. But now you're just
- 6:20Speaker 1: gonna text me in the show I've got for sure,
- 6:23Speaker 1: I'll come up with a and then I'll put it
- 6:24Speaker 1: on a T shirt for you, like you did with
- 6:26Speaker 1: Benecker and his great dream joke, which we can't spoil. Uh,
- 6:30Speaker 1: did you were you like, did you go to movies
- 6:32Speaker 1: a lot when you were a kid, because I know
- 6:34Speaker 1: a little bit about your life because of your own
- 6:36Speaker 1: show in Arizona. Yeah, movies are very that's right. I
- 6:43Speaker 1: guess they can finally talk. But did you go to
- 6:47Speaker 1: the movies a ton like I did? That's definitely one
- 6:49Speaker 1: of the things that you can do in uh smallish
- 6:53Speaker 1: city in Arizona when the summer is just brutal and
- 6:57Speaker 1: there's nothing to be done outside really like literally exactly.
- 7:02Speaker 1: I have so many memories of like just the fold
- 7:06Speaker 1: out car, Like no one uses those anymore, I guess
- 7:10Speaker 1: because windows are better, or maybe they still do in Arizona.
- 7:13Speaker 1: Maybe you still have the sunshades that sort of opened.
- 7:15Speaker 1: But we just had those folding we just like folding cardboards.
- 7:18Speaker 1: Some of them, the fore fancying made the car look
- 7:20Speaker 1: like they were in sunglasses. Sure, sure, but that was
- 7:24Speaker 1: vitally important, as was trying to find any place in
- 7:27Speaker 1: the shade, because so many times I would get seatbelt burns.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Would have you that's one of the highest places on
- 7:36Speaker 1: the planet carpeted dashboards because of that. Yeah, two, there's
- 7:41Speaker 1: I mean, those are the moments where you really do think,
- 7:43Speaker 1: and you really think, how how I can barely survive here?
- 7:48Speaker 1: And we have all the technology and the idea that
- 7:52Speaker 1: the only reason we're here is because people have been
- 7:54Speaker 1: dealing with this heat for a couple of years, that
- 8:00Speaker 1: that there's even survivable beyond you know, free having car shades.
- 8:05Speaker 1: I imagine every time I drove to l A through
- 8:08Speaker 1: that desert and then I would eventually get get cross
- 8:11Speaker 1: over into the l A basin and that cool breeze hits.
- 8:14Speaker 1: I used to think about, like the settlers, what they
- 8:17Speaker 1: must have thought, those who pressed on, Yeah, like, well
- 8:19Speaker 1: this is clearly where I'm gonna live. But if you
- 8:21Speaker 1: stop in Yuma and go I think this is the
- 8:23Speaker 1: best we're gonna get. Guys, we're not going any further west,
- 8:28Speaker 1: just a screw us. Yeah. So the movie theater obviously
- 8:34Speaker 1: as a respite, Yeah, very much so, So you would
- 8:36Speaker 1: go see whatever I feel like I would, I mean
- 8:40Speaker 1: like we we dropped off by the parents, that kind
- 8:42Speaker 1: of Yeah. I would get dropped off by my parents
- 8:44Speaker 1: for sure. Um there you know. Then I would take
- 8:47Speaker 1: the bus. I saw a lot of movies by myself.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Oh for sure that the public bus. Of the movies,
- 8:53Speaker 1: yeah you bet, Um they're my My dad's house is
- 8:57Speaker 1: right in between two malls that have movie theaters. So
- 8:59Speaker 1: that was there's a really easy couple of straight line
- 9:02Speaker 1: go twos on the bus to see movies. And um,
- 9:05Speaker 1: and I have very I do have very specific memories
- 9:08Speaker 1: of seeing certain movies and and I can sort of
- 9:11Speaker 1: put them in context. And then there are other movies.
- 9:13Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you bus movies not bus Well, no,
- 9:17Speaker 1: I don't think that, like for example, when I did. Um.
- 9:20Speaker 1: Craig Atkowski has a podcast where it is just us
- 9:23Speaker 1: talking about his movie. He likes to talk about his
- 9:26Speaker 1: old list of his favorite movies and his wife Carlos
- 9:30Speaker 1: on it and I, uh, because they go in order.
- 9:33Speaker 1: I happened to Get Dead Poets Society. And that was
- 9:37Speaker 1: a movie that I could remember. I could remember everything about,
- 9:40Speaker 1: like going into l con Mall and seeing it and
- 9:43Speaker 1: then feeling that my life had changed, and I cried
- 9:46Speaker 1: so hard that I had to wait until they were
- 9:48Speaker 1: they kicked me out as they were sweeping their popcorn off. Um.
- 9:52Speaker 1: That was a heavy movie for people that, like, you're
- 9:56Speaker 1: a few years younger than me, but I well quite
- 9:59Speaker 1: a few actually, Um, but just to be a teen
- 10:03Speaker 1: or and or a young teen and seeing that movie,
- 10:05Speaker 1: that's like heavy stuff to process. Absolutely, you know. Yeah,
- 10:09Speaker 1: although yes, and then I feel like shortly after that
- 10:13Speaker 1: I got into like even darker stuff because you have
- 10:15Speaker 1: to go through that phase in high school where well
- 10:17Speaker 1: you sort of love a coffer for orange and yeah,
- 10:20Speaker 1: and like eraser Head and all that kind of stuff.
- 10:22Speaker 1: So and I'm having a lot of flashbacks to that
- 10:24Speaker 1: era because of Twin Peaks coming back and have you
- 10:27Speaker 1: been watching that? I have? What do you think? I mean?
- 10:32Speaker 1: I'm struggling with some of it. I'm I'm struggling deeply
- 10:35Speaker 1: with some of it. Producer very into it, you're into it,
- 10:40Speaker 1: the hook line and Sinker, including this last episode. Yeah, Well,
- 10:44Speaker 1: I've been watching, and my whole deal is the Twin
- 10:47Speaker 1: Peaks stuff I love and that's what it's like, five
- 10:50Speaker 1: of it and the other stuff like is total Lynch,
- 10:53Speaker 1: which is great and weird and awesome, but I kind
- 10:56Speaker 1: of wanted Twin Peaks. Yeah, um, listen, I'll say Dougie
- 10:59Speaker 1: all day long. I don't ever want I don't ever
- 11:01Speaker 1: want Colm McLaughlin to be anyone but Douggie. I love
- 11:04Speaker 1: him so much. As I will watch, Yeah, I will
- 11:08Speaker 1: watch the seven minute take of him eating potato chips,
- 11:11Speaker 1: but I don't know if I can watch the seven
- 11:14Speaker 1: minute take of X y Z all of these other
- 11:17Speaker 1: things that he's throwing in that are just they're so long. Um.
- 11:20Speaker 1: I just love lunch so much though, and like, I
- 11:23Speaker 1: just want him to be doing this stuff, like, even
- 11:27Speaker 1: if it doesn't resonate fully with me, just keep doing it.
- 11:30Speaker 1: I agree. I'm just I can't. Sometimes I feel like
- 11:33Speaker 1: he's pranking us a little bit, and sometimes I feel
- 11:35Speaker 1: like he's like they gave me final cut. I'm just
- 11:38Speaker 1: gonna do this. I'm just gonna show this for five
- 11:41Speaker 1: minutes because I can. Yeah, because I don't think it
- 11:44Speaker 1: fully makes sense in his head in a narrative way.
- 11:47Speaker 1: There are things that don't advance the story in any way,
- 11:49Speaker 1: shape or form. And the dude is like, how old
- 11:52Speaker 1: is he? And he's still that weird? Yeah, yeah, you didn't.
- 11:57Speaker 1: Interviewed him for Wired magazine and they sat down with
- 12:02Speaker 1: him and they got on really well because Brandon asked
- 12:05Speaker 1: really interesting questions and stuff like the questions that he
- 12:07Speaker 1: was supposed to ask. Probably Uh so we got all
- 12:09Speaker 1: this like fun backstory about David Lynch and the bird
- 12:12Speaker 1: that lived in his on his roof and all of
- 12:14Speaker 1: this kind of this and that the kind of stuff
- 12:16Speaker 1: that you want to hear that you want to go,
- 12:18Speaker 1: Oh God, of course that's how his brain works. Um.
- 12:21Speaker 1: But yeah, so lots of going to the movies when
- 12:23Speaker 1: I was younger, lots of My dad is a huge
- 12:25Speaker 1: movie fan, um, and he introduced me to a lot
- 12:31Speaker 1: of movies that I certainly wouldn't have seen as young
- 12:34Speaker 1: as I was had he not been like, I think
- 12:35Speaker 1: you're ready for this. You know, what was your first
- 12:38Speaker 1: do you remember that? I'm not sure. I'm not sure
- 12:41Speaker 1: what it was, but I know that my mom took
- 12:45Speaker 1: me to see Robocopy. You gotta be are there's no way,
- 12:51Speaker 1: that's not hard. There's some crazy violent stuff that happened
- 12:56Speaker 1: were back then. Yeah, so I don't know. And then
- 12:58Speaker 1: I and then she took me to Die Hard. Also,
- 13:00Speaker 1: my Mormon mom, who did not television at home for
- 13:02Speaker 1: some reason, wanted to take me to both of those movies. Yeah. Um,
- 13:06Speaker 1: so those were probably, I mean, those have got to
- 13:08Speaker 1: be the first our movies that I went to. I
- 13:10Speaker 1: don't know if I had seen something at home before then,
- 13:12Speaker 1: but definitely those. Yeah. Mine was my dad took me
- 13:16Speaker 1: to a war movie, the Big Red One, uh, which
- 13:20Speaker 1: was good and fine, good World War two movie. And
- 13:22Speaker 1: then the first one I ever saw, I think at
- 13:25Speaker 1: all was Escaped from New York. And I was over
- 13:29Speaker 1: at some friends house after church and they were putting
- 13:32Speaker 1: it on and I called my mom to ask if
- 13:34Speaker 1: it was okay adorable? What'd you say? Uh? Yeah, she said,
- 13:38Speaker 1: because I had called. If she had said no, you
- 13:41Speaker 1: think you would have been like, as I gonna go. Oh, now,
- 13:44Speaker 1: that's a good question. I mean I certainly then and
- 13:49Speaker 1: was an m a rule follower, so I don't know
- 13:53Speaker 1: what I would have done. I like to not walk
- 13:55Speaker 1: through those stories. She said, yes, that's all that matter.
- 14:01Speaker 1: Do you know she had a good kid. What a relief.
- 14:03Speaker 1: But my dad, this is kind of really I can't
- 14:05Speaker 1: believe I'm going to say this to people out loud.
- 14:08Speaker 1: My dad took my sister to see Body Heat in
- 14:11Speaker 1: the theater, which I don't know. I can't imagine. My
- 14:15Speaker 1: dad did not go to movies ever, so I've got
- 14:18Speaker 1: to think that he had no idea what he was
- 14:20Speaker 1: going to see. He's called body Heat. It's not like
- 14:22Speaker 1: the Postman always wrings twice where you're like, oh, that
- 14:24Speaker 1: could be anything. It's probably about male It's about the U. S.
- 14:27Speaker 1: Mail system exact body heat. Yea, what do you think
- 14:30Speaker 1: it was like a thermal tracking soldiers tracking? Uh, yeah,
- 14:37Speaker 1: I'm gonna have well, I would say I was asking
- 14:39Speaker 1: about that one day, but I'm never going to ask
- 14:41Speaker 1: him that. Maybe I ask my sister. I'll ask him.
- 14:43Speaker 1: You want me to ask him? Why didn't he Why
- 14:44Speaker 1: didn't he get up and leave the movie? Yeah? I
- 14:46Speaker 1: actually got up and left during Greece too, during the
- 14:49Speaker 1: scene where the girls were having to sleepover and their underwear.
- 14:52Speaker 1: My mom took me to see Grease and I was
- 14:54Speaker 1: so like embarrassed, I said, Mom, can we leave even
- 14:57Speaker 1: remember their underwear. I feel it wasn't just a jo
- 15:00Speaker 1: it was I was Southern Baptist, I was on ankle,
- 15:05Speaker 1: on ankle, there was a lot of refreshing going on.
- 15:08Speaker 1: I didn't know what was going on. My dad let
- 15:12Speaker 1: me watch Animal House and I was like, boobs, boobs.
- 15:16Speaker 1: So your dad was cool, yeah, he Well, that's what's
- 15:19Speaker 1: weird is he really didn't want me to see violent
- 15:22Speaker 1: stuff because he knew how sensitive us I was. But
- 15:24Speaker 1: he was like, yes, sex is fine, it's silly, it's
- 15:26Speaker 1: in you know, nomies, it's fine. Uh. And then my mom,
- 15:30Speaker 1: who again Mormon, didn't have a television, somehow wanted to
- 15:34Speaker 1: take me to see those two movies. I just don't
- 15:36Speaker 1: to this day, I don't understand. You get the violence
- 15:38Speaker 1: from your mom, I guess from your dad. Yeah, that's
- 15:41Speaker 1: great as it should be. Yeah, the American way, everything
- 15:43Speaker 1: was covered. So do you remember we're talking about Tron specifically, Yeah,
- 15:49Speaker 1: as your pick for all time favorite movies. And first
- 15:52Speaker 1: of all, I'm really bad at ranking anything anything like Yeah,
- 15:56Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's what the show. But some people
- 15:59Speaker 1: really like going like I mean, again, using Craigs an example,
- 16:03Speaker 1: he loves that he has this order that shifts and
- 16:07Speaker 1: he plays with it and he kind of he knows
- 16:08Speaker 1: it any giving care but it though, Yeah, that's true.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Didn't that the point? Yeah, Like, no one can anyone's
- 16:15Speaker 1: all time favorite movie on any given day, It's probably
- 16:17Speaker 1: gonna be different. I guess, Yeah, I guess so. But
- 16:19Speaker 1: I do feel like there are people who take pride
- 16:21Speaker 1: and kind of like it helps define me. This is
- 16:23Speaker 1: my all time favorite movie, and for many is The Godfather?
- 16:26Speaker 1: How many go? How many times are gonna have to
- 16:28Speaker 1: talk about The Godfather? And are you going to tell
- 16:29Speaker 1: people if that's your favorite movie of all time? We've
- 16:32Speaker 1: talked about it three times already. Can you pick a
- 16:34Speaker 1: different one? Yeah, I'm not. I'm not going to repeat movies.
- 16:36Speaker 1: I don't think unless it's unless there could be some
- 16:40Speaker 1: like a fresh take right now. But it's funny that
- 16:43Speaker 1: everyone I've asked so far as immediately been stressed out
- 16:47Speaker 1: about the notion of picking one and then going public
- 16:51Speaker 1: with that, because I think everyone does think it says
- 16:54Speaker 1: something about them. Yeah, well that's I think. Could I
- 16:57Speaker 1: if I really sat down and tried to pick something thing?
- 17:00Speaker 1: I mean, someone asked me. I think actually when I
- 17:02Speaker 1: did a brief interview at the l A Podcast Festival
- 17:06Speaker 1: where we have pointing to you because we saw each
- 17:08Speaker 1: other there and you did my podcast. Um, I think
- 17:12Speaker 1: I blurted out Harold and Maud because for a long
- 17:14Speaker 1: time that was I would have I would have that
- 17:17Speaker 1: would have been the situation, like from my teens into
- 17:20Speaker 1: my twenty In my early twenties, I was proud to
- 17:23Speaker 1: say that was my favorite movie cool and and I
- 17:28Speaker 1: still love it a lot. But um, but I think
- 17:33Speaker 1: so I couldn't and I said that when I was interviewed.
- 17:34Speaker 1: Then I was like, Okay, I'll put Harold and at
- 17:36Speaker 1: the top of the list. I guess, but screw it. Yeah,
- 17:39Speaker 1: I'm going. I'm going. I'm I'm gonna go with Tron
- 17:41Speaker 1: because it's been important to me far longer and I
- 17:46Speaker 1: I love it. Nerd dudes all over the world listening
- 17:50Speaker 1: to this that are super excited that that's your favorite, Well,
- 17:53Speaker 1: I probably will. You're probably also safe and that I
- 17:55Speaker 1: don't think anyone else will. It's not gonna be like,
- 17:58Speaker 1: oh on again, is everybody's number one? Glass loves Tron? Um.
- 18:06Speaker 1: I have a confession to make about Tron. Have you
- 18:08Speaker 1: never seen it. I've seen Tron. I hated saw it
- 18:11Speaker 1: this afternoon. You really it was the first time you've
- 18:14Speaker 1: ever seen it. I don't know how I didn't see Tron.
- 18:18Speaker 1: I never saw Tron. This is what a great first episode.
- 18:21Speaker 1: I know. I loved the Arcade game. I played it obsessively,
- 18:26Speaker 1: and I never saw the movie. Oh my god, this
- 18:29Speaker 1: is great. And I don't know why. I was trying
- 18:30Speaker 1: to figure it out today. I was like, I've seen Tron, right, Yeah,
- 18:32Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, the movie with the light cycles. But
- 18:35Speaker 1: then it started to dawn on me. I never never
- 18:38Speaker 1: ever saw Tron. Oh my god. So I watched it
- 18:40Speaker 1: today in full uh, and we should talk about it. Okay,
- 18:46Speaker 1: what was your first like Tron experience? Do you remember
- 18:48Speaker 1: seeing it in the theater? I don't remember my first
- 18:50Speaker 1: time seeing it. I really don't. I don't. I couldn't
- 18:53Speaker 1: tell you if I saw VHS. Um, well, I could
- 18:57Speaker 1: have seen it in the theater. I mean it's a
- 18:59Speaker 1: Disney movie number one, yeah, but I mean you know
- 19:02Speaker 1: I would have. I mean I was what six, Um,
- 19:07Speaker 1: I think I probably saw in the theater. And the
- 19:09Speaker 1: reason is that like rocked my world. And so I
- 19:13Speaker 1: can't imagine that I would have seen it on VHS
- 19:15Speaker 1: for the first time. Um uh I. I maintain to
- 19:22Speaker 1: this day that it was so far ahead of its time,
- 19:25Speaker 1: so far ahead of time, and it is pretty peculiar
- 19:28Speaker 1: and amazing that it's a Disney movie. I think it's
- 19:31Speaker 1: it's worth like it's of note for that reason and itself.
- 19:35Speaker 1: Um I don't play video games. I'm not a game
- 19:38Speaker 1: at all, so it has nothing to do for me
- 19:41Speaker 1: with like I didn't I never played no No No.
- 19:45Speaker 1: I mean I would play like handheld pac Man games,
- 19:48Speaker 1: like at my friend's houses, and I played whatever, like
- 19:52Speaker 1: PC learning games my dad got me that. We're like,
- 19:56Speaker 1: I don't even think I had an Oregon trail that
- 19:58Speaker 1: that was more advanced than I didn't even have Arizona
- 20:01Speaker 1: Trail truck. I'm talking about. The only thing you think
- 20:03Speaker 1: of right now was a game called spell It that
- 20:07Speaker 1: was a spelling game that involved a frog who the
- 20:12Speaker 1: little tongue would come out and like lick it would
- 20:16Speaker 1: lick and absorb the letters after you spelled something correctly.
- 20:19Speaker 1: That was like your prize. How old were you? I
- 20:22Speaker 1: mean it was little. This wasn't like fifteen years old.
- 20:25Speaker 1: I mean it was like, you know, when you're year old,
- 20:30Speaker 1: two year old, maybe like this was when it was
- 20:33Speaker 1: you know, still like it was shocking that there was
- 20:35Speaker 1: any kind of a game to be played, So probably
- 20:37Speaker 1: around six years old or something. Yeah, and liken' listen.
- 20:41Speaker 1: Some of the words would get pretty tricky. I don't
- 20:43Speaker 1: want you to think that it was like a sugar
- 20:44Speaker 1: and cat frogs frogs are hungry maybe a long word. So, uh,
- 20:53Speaker 1: arcade games that got you in there, not at all? No,
- 20:56Speaker 1: um No. I just loved the world of it. I
- 21:02Speaker 1: loved I and to this like I would have dreams
- 21:05Speaker 1: about it. I still sometimes have dreams about it. Yeah,
- 21:08Speaker 1: that I'm inside the game grid um and uh. And
- 21:13Speaker 1: I think part of the reason that I didn't play
- 21:14Speaker 1: the arcade games is that because I saw the movie first,
- 21:18Speaker 1: the arcade games were just see flat, two dimensional things,
- 21:20Speaker 1: and the whole point was like, but no, that don't
- 21:23Speaker 1: understand these games exist for regular people to play. I'm
- 21:26Speaker 1: a user, I should, but I should be inside the game.
- 21:29Speaker 1: That's the only way I want to experience it. Is
- 21:31Speaker 1: like viscerally with my cute uniform on. And uh and
- 21:36Speaker 1: I love the music. The music again totally ahead of
- 21:38Speaker 1: its time and crazy and weird and great um and
- 21:42Speaker 1: uh and without Now we'll get into the kind of
- 21:45Speaker 1: the sentimentality of it, which was that my dad also
- 21:48Speaker 1: loved it, and we would play this game at night
- 21:53Speaker 1: like when yeah, when I was this is why you
- 21:58Speaker 1: love trying to suck out, just closed the door behind me.
- 22:02Speaker 1: We had um an alarm system in the house where
- 22:04Speaker 1: you know, you have the motion detector and the little
- 22:06Speaker 1: red light blinks when there's motion. And then we also
- 22:10Speaker 1: had like you know, everything digital, so like our micro
- 22:13Speaker 1: wave was digital, or all our VCRs clocks, all that
- 22:15Speaker 1: kind of stuff was digital. And that's all yeah, so
- 22:18Speaker 1: that's all great. So and our house was this little
- 22:22Speaker 1: tiny three bedroom house, but it you could go in
- 22:25Speaker 1: a complete circle around it, right, so you could come
- 22:27Speaker 1: in the front door, you could go through the living room,
- 22:29Speaker 1: turn left, go down the hallway where all the bedrooms were,
- 22:33Speaker 1: go back into the back room, and then that reconnected
- 22:36Speaker 1: with the kitchen that reconnected with the front room, so
- 22:38Speaker 1: you can go in a full circle. And there was
- 22:41Speaker 1: there was zero atria nor koi pond uh. And so
- 22:46Speaker 1: my dad would we would play this game where we
- 22:48Speaker 1: were inside the game where we would turn off all
- 22:50Speaker 1: the lights in the house, and he would when I
- 22:54Speaker 1: was really when I was a little like I guess
- 22:56Speaker 1: six or whatever, because I would have that's as little
- 22:59Speaker 1: as I would have been able to be. He would
- 23:00Speaker 1: kind of hold me Superman style, UM, and we would
- 23:04Speaker 1: like scoot around the house and we would be trying
- 23:07Speaker 1: to avoid um Sark and like all the bad guys,
- 23:10Speaker 1: and so if we were trying to creep past the
- 23:13Speaker 1: motion detectors, I mean, listen, it was a great would
- 23:15Speaker 1: be great training for me if I'd become an expert
- 23:17Speaker 1: cat burglar. We would be we would kind of get
- 23:19Speaker 1: as far as we could before we would see a
- 23:21Speaker 1: light and then we would see the red light. We'd
- 23:22Speaker 1: be like they see us, the recognizers, and then we'd
- 23:24Speaker 1: like run into the next room like like you know.
- 23:27Speaker 1: And so to this day, I'm not afraid of that,
- 23:30Speaker 1: Like I've never been afraid of the dark, because I
- 23:32Speaker 1: only equate the total darkness with playing Tron And Yeah,
- 23:36Speaker 1: and it was this like super great cool game that
- 23:38Speaker 1: my dad made up that was legitimately like kind of
- 23:41Speaker 1: scary and exciting, and it made me feel like I
- 23:44Speaker 1: was inside that game grid And then at Disneyland, UM
- 23:49Speaker 1: we would go to Disneyland every summer. My dad would Um.
- 23:52Speaker 1: We had friends who lived in La Canada, which is
- 23:54Speaker 1: kind of like Pasadena area, and he would because of
- 23:58Speaker 1: the Arizona summers, he would wake me up up. He
- 24:00Speaker 1: would he would take a nap, like he would sort
- 24:02Speaker 1: of sleep for a couple of hours, and then he
- 24:03Speaker 1: would get up in the middle of the night and
- 24:06Speaker 1: wake me up and put me in a sleeping bag
- 24:09Speaker 1: in the covered cab of our Dots and truck which
- 24:12Speaker 1: was carpeted and uh, and he'd be like he would
- 24:16Speaker 1: wake me up at you know, say two or three
- 24:17Speaker 1: in the morning, say like, miss Jay, are you ready
- 24:19Speaker 1: to go to Disneyland? And I was like and then
- 24:23Speaker 1: and so then I would get into the car and
- 24:24Speaker 1: fall asleep, and then I would wake up and we
- 24:26Speaker 1: would be almost there, and then I would kind of
- 24:29Speaker 1: clamber through the little window and then come sit with
- 24:31Speaker 1: my dad and um, and then we would get there.
- 24:34Speaker 1: And then at Disneyland they had the people Mover, which
- 24:38Speaker 1: one little tiny sliver of the People Mover was that
- 24:40Speaker 1: you would go inside this kind of room that they
- 24:44Speaker 1: had just put Yeah, they just all it was was
- 24:47Speaker 1: movie screens, but you would be on the people mover
- 24:50Speaker 1: and then suddenly you would be on the game grid
- 24:52Speaker 1: and they recognized were coming, almost squash you, and then
- 24:54Speaker 1: you would go inside the light cycle maze. So again,
- 24:58Speaker 1: no interest in the arcade game I did. I was like,
- 25:01Speaker 1: I just want to live here full time. So, um,
- 25:04Speaker 1: those are all like very they're very deep embedded childhood
- 25:08Speaker 1: memories for me. And uh, but but there's nothing about
- 25:12Speaker 1: the movie now when I watch it, it means every
- 25:15Speaker 1: bit as much to me. There's no There are plenty
- 25:17Speaker 1: of movies that I loved that I can't. I can
- 25:20Speaker 1: sort of go, what does it hold up? I'm not
- 25:23Speaker 1: able to see if it doesn't hold up, Like you
- 25:25Speaker 1: just watched up for the first time. So your experience
- 25:27Speaker 1: was your experience, and I totally respect that. But I
- 25:30Speaker 1: it's I mean, I've brainwashed myself. I've still watched it
- 25:34Speaker 1: and think, God, this is ahead of its time. God,
- 25:36Speaker 1: this is good. It's so good. Well it was ahead
- 25:40Speaker 1: of its sign because it was in a little research
- 25:42Speaker 1: today it is um it was one of the very
- 25:46Speaker 1: first movies to use computer animation at all. And who's
- 25:52Speaker 1: the director. The director is Stephen Liz Burger. Oh you
- 26:00Speaker 1: nailed it earlier, Peter, I think, ye the Giants Stephen
- 26:10Speaker 1: Lisberger and he, uh, it was kind of a not
- 26:14Speaker 1: kind of it was a passion project for him, like
- 26:17Speaker 1: he thought of this world and was ahead of his
- 26:20Speaker 1: time and couldn't get anyone to make it and like
- 26:23Speaker 1: sunk his own money into like test shots, and we
- 26:26Speaker 1: took it around to the studios and was like, look
- 26:28Speaker 1: at what I have. Look at this amazing thing. And
- 26:30Speaker 1: I was like, man, I don't know about that. And
- 26:32Speaker 1: finally Disney took a flyer and said, all right, we'll
- 26:35Speaker 1: give you like ten million bucks or whatever, which was
- 26:38Speaker 1: huge because he wasn't in the Disney clan. He was
- 26:41Speaker 1: an outsider. And he said he always felt that way too,
- 26:43Speaker 1: which is kind of sad. But um, it was way
- 26:46Speaker 1: ahead of its time and no one knew what they
- 26:49Speaker 1: were seeing. Like now, for someone like me to watch
- 26:52Speaker 1: it who's never seen it before, sure it might look dated,
- 26:55Speaker 1: but it also looks modern in a weird way, you know,
- 27:00Speaker 1: like especially the stuff with the and I didn't know,
- 27:03Speaker 1: but they really shot in black and white the characters
- 27:06Speaker 1: and did this rotoscoping process and that because of how
- 27:10Speaker 1: they had to do it painstaking. That ends up looking
- 27:12Speaker 1: kind of cool. Now, yeah, it looks fantastic and all
- 27:16Speaker 1: the way the city lights up at the I mean,
- 27:18Speaker 1: it's all so wonderful. Also collect these um these like
- 27:23Speaker 1: at some of the kind of like hipster like Japanese
- 27:25Speaker 1: toy shops. Uh, when I was well there, you know
- 27:28Speaker 1: there are they exist in like San Francisco and Los
- 27:31Speaker 1: Angeles and you know some of the kind of certainly
- 27:34Speaker 1: on the western coast cities. Um there was a place
- 27:37Speaker 1: in San Francisco that's sold the They're called Kubrick of course,
- 27:43Speaker 1: um just I'm saying that because of course it's named
- 27:46Speaker 1: after something also equally like Nichian hip where they would
- 27:50Speaker 1: do these limited edition lines of toys from beloved movies
- 27:55Speaker 1: like that, and so they I have these really cool
- 27:58Speaker 1: they almost look like um like mobile like m I
- 28:02Speaker 1: is the um um O b I L or those
- 28:04Speaker 1: or those little people. It's just a little kind of
- 28:07Speaker 1: like Lego people. So they sort of do look like
- 28:09Speaker 1: Lego people, but you know they're in their uniforms and
- 28:12Speaker 1: then there's a great but but the design is so
- 28:14Speaker 1: great and there's this great UM. I wish I if
- 28:17Speaker 1: we were in l A, I could have brought it
- 28:19Speaker 1: with me. But there's a recognizer that you can you
- 28:22Speaker 1: can pop the legs off and then turn the legs
- 28:24Speaker 1: inward in the center so you can make it into
- 28:27Speaker 1: like the there's a tank that's really beautiful. But they're
- 28:29Speaker 1: just so well done and well made. I have the
- 28:34Speaker 1: whole set of the Kubrick stuff, and then I have
- 28:36Speaker 1: like a scattering of the original toys that look more
- 28:40Speaker 1: like you know, Star Wars figures or whatever. Um, yeah,
- 28:43Speaker 1: and I have I mean that's a that's a good
- 28:45Speaker 1: go to gift someone stuff. Yeah, And they did this
- 28:51Speaker 1: really cool. They had it. They showed it at the
- 28:53Speaker 1: Arrow in Santa Monica years ago in Los Angeles and
- 28:56Speaker 1: and Stephen the director was there, and then one of
- 28:58Speaker 1: the producers and um and uh, I think Bruce box
- 29:03Speaker 1: Lightner was there, and for sure what's her name the
- 29:05Speaker 1: woman was there and Cinny Morgan was there, and so
- 29:09Speaker 1: they all kind of talked and traded stories and talked
- 29:11Speaker 1: about it. Oh, it was so cool. And they had
- 29:12Speaker 1: a couple of you know, costumes from there. And and
- 29:15Speaker 1: I hate Tron legacy, like nothing that came after Tron.
- 29:18Speaker 1: Do I have any respect for what's it? Well, I
- 29:19Speaker 1: didn't see Tron Legacy, and I didn't I think there
- 29:22Speaker 1: was even a TV show. I'm not sure. Yeah, there
- 29:25Speaker 1: was something in between that between the two main big
- 29:29Speaker 1: Tron movies. But see, now that I've seen Tron at all,
- 29:31Speaker 1: the idea I know what the idea of Tron Legacy was.
- 29:34Speaker 1: It seems like a great idea that like this this
- 29:38Speaker 1: Jeopard his son has now come back. Now. Yeah, and
- 29:43Speaker 1: it doesn't even look I can't. I can't. I didn't
- 29:46Speaker 1: capture the spirit of the original at all, and not
- 29:48Speaker 1: to me. To me, it's just this sort of empty, soulless.
- 29:54Speaker 1: It just doesn't feel like and it doesn't do anything
- 29:56Speaker 1: from me at all. I see why they did it, though,
- 29:58Speaker 1: you know, like Tron was so out of its time,
- 30:00Speaker 1: and like now they have the technology and to make
- 30:03Speaker 1: a new and I like Garrett Headlin. Yeah, um, but
- 30:07Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean I never saw it because
- 30:09Speaker 1: I didn't see But also and I saw it only
- 30:12Speaker 1: once I saw it, I'll Copy Town. I mean I went,
- 30:15Speaker 1: I went hoping it would be great. You know el
- 30:17Speaker 1: copy Town you don't know was on Hollywood Boulevard and
- 30:20Speaker 1: it's Disney's big theater and they have sometimes live that
- 30:23Speaker 1: you came in fourhand. It's really it's a beautiful place, um,
- 30:27Speaker 1: and that was the right thing to do to see
- 30:29Speaker 1: it there. I can barely remember what it was about
- 30:32Speaker 1: out front. I wish I bet no, No, I don't
- 30:36Speaker 1: think they had. They might have had some costumes from
- 30:38Speaker 1: the then who cares because it's from the new stuff.
- 30:42Speaker 1: Why is ass enough? Right? Jeff Bridges character, he returns
- 30:46Speaker 1: in different variations of himself stuff. Yeah, and uh, he's
- 30:51Speaker 1: humorless from what I can remember. And Olivia Wild, Olivia Wild,
- 30:55Speaker 1: she's lovely but like she's everybody was just humorless. And
- 31:00Speaker 1: that was the I mean, the whole point. So much
- 31:02Speaker 1: of Tron is Jeff Bridges being a complete why that smart,
- 31:06Speaker 1: infuriating sark, which I mean obviously that's um played by uh,
- 31:11Speaker 1: don't tell me um David. Yes, I always forget his name,
- 31:16Speaker 1: even though I love him and he's one of the
- 31:17Speaker 1: great bad guys. Yeah, A Man with Two Brains is
- 31:19Speaker 1: very close to the the top of my favorite movie. But
- 31:21Speaker 1: if you have a podcast, Sam Levine and that is
- 31:23Speaker 1: his favorite. So I really struck that from the list
- 31:25Speaker 1: because I knew Sam would want to talk about with
- 31:27Speaker 1: two Brains. I could talk about that all day long.
- 31:30Speaker 1: Um year, you know, yeah, David, No, no, no, it
- 31:33Speaker 1: did not. Dead Men Don't Wear a Platt came out
- 31:35Speaker 1: that year. Sorry I can't remember his last name. David Warner.
- 31:38Speaker 1: David Warner, of course, one of the one. And you
- 31:40Speaker 1: know what's so freaky is, I don't know if you
- 31:43Speaker 1: do this, but you go back and watch some of
- 31:44Speaker 1: your favorite movies and then you think, wow, I'm older
- 31:47Speaker 1: than them when they meant this for sure, So Bridges
- 31:50Speaker 1: in box lightn or we're both around thirty one ish
- 31:52Speaker 1: when they made it. David Warner, it was five years
- 31:56Speaker 1: younger than me. He was one years old ancient in
- 32:02Speaker 1: that Yeah, of course he did in our brain because
- 32:04Speaker 1: we were kids and now and I even watched it today,
- 32:07Speaker 1: I was like, I look at that old, creepy guy,
- 32:10Speaker 1: these five years younger than me. Oh my god. Well
- 32:12Speaker 1: he he also has one of those faces where you're like, oh,
- 32:14Speaker 1: you're sixty twenty year old, and he wasn't you'll get
- 32:17Speaker 1: their cargo short? Wasn't it? Absolutely not? Absolutely not? And
- 32:21Speaker 1: then the and then the guy who plays Ram, and
- 32:24Speaker 1: then when Ram dies, yeah, it just still makes me cry. Yeah,
- 32:28Speaker 1: and the whole weird, the the whole idea of technology
- 32:32Speaker 1: and and like the gods and that sort of playing
- 32:35Speaker 1: with that kind of like theology, the idea that there
- 32:38Speaker 1: would be information living inside a computer that would be
- 32:42Speaker 1: you know, that would be intelligent enough to question where
- 32:46Speaker 1: itself came from and putting all of this faith in
- 32:49Speaker 1: the people who created it. And I mean, it's just fascinating. Well,
- 32:52Speaker 1: that was sort of the great fear I think at
- 32:54Speaker 1: first when you know, computers became a thing, But now
- 32:57Speaker 1: it's sort of a legitimate fear. You know, robots becoming
- 33:03Speaker 1: sentient master control program man. Yeah, like that's kind of
- 33:06Speaker 1: a thing now. It was ahead of its time, but um,
- 33:09Speaker 1: what's kind of struck me A couple of funny things. Um,
- 33:12Speaker 1: on that note, twin is it? Who is the main?
- 33:15Speaker 1: Was it? Sark was talking to the David Warner character
- 33:19Speaker 1: and kind of explaining MCP, that master Control program is
- 33:23Speaker 1: the main And then Sark is like his lackey kind
- 33:26Speaker 1: of MP is just you can just a little confusing
- 33:31Speaker 1: because I played CP. You just hear you hear that
- 33:33Speaker 1: deep scary voice, but then you see it as like
- 33:36Speaker 1: a computer grid face and yeah, oh, I also have
- 33:39Speaker 1: the toy of that. It's so cool. But um, a
- 33:42Speaker 1: couple of funny things. One is he said that, um,
- 33:44Speaker 1: he was getting involved with the Kremlin and uh who
- 33:48Speaker 1: else the Kremlin and the Pentagon because he said that
- 33:51Speaker 1: he could design things, uh nine hundred to twelve hundred
- 33:55Speaker 1: times better than any human. I just love that number range. Yeah,
- 33:59Speaker 1: like between nine times better. Uh. And the other thing
- 34:04Speaker 1: was the beginning and the end of the movie is
- 34:07Speaker 1: so weird and abrupt. How the movie starts it just
- 34:13Speaker 1: you know, it says Flynn's Arcade, which is in Culver
- 34:15Speaker 1: City by the way. I don't know if you've ever
- 34:16Speaker 1: been by that building, the whole building. Um, that's where
- 34:20Speaker 1: they shot the exterior. And um, it starts with just
- 34:23Speaker 1: a dude playing the Tron game, and then it goes
- 34:26Speaker 1: in on the Tron game and then you're in the
- 34:28Speaker 1: Tron game, and then it just starts and then and
- 34:32Speaker 1: then it says literally says like and meanwhile in the
- 34:35Speaker 1: real world, and then this Jeff Bridges and you're like, oh,
- 34:38Speaker 1: who is this guy? And then when the movie just
- 34:40Speaker 1: it just ends like they're in the computer world. They
- 34:43Speaker 1: have the big climax fight and then uh, he gets
- 34:47Speaker 1: out of a helicopter at the end and joins box
- 34:49Speaker 1: Lightner and Sydney Morgan. They're like, they hug, and that's
- 34:52Speaker 1: the end of the movie. I'm of there's the big
- 34:58Speaker 1: climax is definitely in side of the game, and that's
- 35:02Speaker 1: what the movie him come back out. And then when
- 35:06Speaker 1: he comes back out, we see that he's successfully gotten
- 35:08Speaker 1: all the information that's printing out very slowly on the
- 35:10Speaker 1: loud printer, and then David Warner sees that no, it didn't.
- 35:19Speaker 1: Then it's like he's toast and then it's like, hey,
- 35:22Speaker 1: we better the boss is coming, and you're right, it's Jeff.
- 35:24Speaker 1: Don't strike me as bad filmmaking. It struck me as
- 35:27Speaker 1: such a thing of its time period, like to where
- 35:31Speaker 1: movies would end with just everyone like high fiving and
- 35:34Speaker 1: that's it. Now we have now we've been tainted in
- 35:37Speaker 1: the other direction by too many false endings. For you're like,
- 35:41Speaker 1: wait a minute, this movie, every every scene now for
- 35:44Speaker 1: the last twenty minutes has felt like the last scene Tarantino,
- 35:47Speaker 1: let's keep a clean, let's get in, get out, And
- 35:49Speaker 1: then as the lights go down in the city, not
- 35:52Speaker 1: to quote a Journey song, then how much it looks
- 35:56Speaker 1: like what else that happened in the whole building. David
- 35:59Speaker 1: Warner pretty is pretty far with through anyone. Well, Senny Morgan,
- 36:02Speaker 1: you know, I know her from Caddyshack. She's a fox
- 36:05Speaker 1: us as Lacy Underhalls, which wow, I couldn't get away
- 36:11Speaker 1: that today. Uh oh. And then the other thing I
- 36:13Speaker 1: thought was neat was income as the name of the
- 36:16Speaker 1: company is like kind of one of the great evil
- 36:20Speaker 1: villain companies of all time. I think, Yeah, it sounds
- 36:23Speaker 1: like it could be anything, and that's what's so great
- 36:25Speaker 1: and terrifying about it. Yeah, I mean that's kind of
- 36:27Speaker 1: the key store and just all the stuff they're working on.
- 36:29Speaker 1: The whole idea that you could, you know, use lasers
- 36:33Speaker 1: to break down the atom to the point where you
- 36:35Speaker 1: could shoot it through space. I mean, that's a little
- 36:37Speaker 1: bit Wanta vision too. That's another movie I could have
- 36:41Speaker 1: probably said everything everything goes back to being a young
- 36:45Speaker 1: a young person, like I don't. I think, I'm so,
- 36:47Speaker 1: I'm so connected to that unbridled passion that feels kind
- 36:52Speaker 1: of unmatchable as Yeah, I can't. So those I think
- 36:57Speaker 1: those are all the movies that I really go back to,
- 36:59Speaker 1: because when I think about movies, I mean, you know,
- 37:03Speaker 1: after I saw in Bruges, I was like, this is
- 37:04Speaker 1: my favorite movie. And then I saw another movie that
- 37:07Speaker 1: I felt was my favorite movie. A year later, I
- 37:09Speaker 1: was like, no, this is my favorite movie. But you know,
- 37:11Speaker 1: and Bruges is in there, the Ice Storm. I still
- 37:14Speaker 1: think it is like made. There's artistically, you know, intact
- 37:20Speaker 1: and you know, brilliant movies that would also be kind
- 37:25Speaker 1: of in my list. But I like to say, like
- 37:27Speaker 1: I have a top It's like I have twenty five
- 37:30Speaker 1: top five movies. Yeah, you know you have like you
- 37:33Speaker 1: get twenty five, but they're all part of your top five.
- 37:35Speaker 1: But I did to think of a segment today that
- 37:37Speaker 1: I'm gonna do for everyone, which is, oh, you asked
- 37:39Speaker 1: me to remember some think about maybe something more like
- 37:43Speaker 1: guilty Pleasures. We'll do that later, okay, And by later,
- 37:46Speaker 1: I mean okay, uh, this is a segment. Maybe we'll
- 37:51Speaker 1: getting old to do some cool music for this called
- 37:54Speaker 1: what Ebert said this movie is a complete okay, all right,
- 38:02Speaker 1: because I thought he's awa. I mean, there's plenty of
- 38:04Speaker 1: legendary film critics, but he's always been my favorite. Absolutely
- 38:07Speaker 1: he gave well what do you think? First of all? Now,
- 38:09Speaker 1: do you have any idea Listen. I want to believe
- 38:12Speaker 1: that he was on board and that he understood how
- 38:14Speaker 1: special and important it was, and that he thought to himself,
- 38:17Speaker 1: Janet Varney will one day name this is her favorite movie.
- 38:20Speaker 1: But I don't feel like it got particularly good reviews,
- 38:22Speaker 1: and I don't think it did particularly well, so I
- 38:25Speaker 1: and he was pretty influential at the time, so I'm
- 38:28Speaker 1: prepared for him to have given it a thumbs down.
- 38:31Speaker 1: Eber loved it. He gave it four stars and a
- 38:36Speaker 1: thumbs up, and he says, uh, it was a technological
- 38:39Speaker 1: sound and light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish
- 38:43Speaker 1: and fun. Oh good, And then he went on to
- 38:46Speaker 1: rape about the special effects. He said that the holy
- 38:49Speaker 1: imaginary worlds of Toron are so cleverly composed that I
- 38:52Speaker 1: never ever got the sensation that I was watching some
- 38:55Speaker 1: actors stand in front of or in the middle of
- 38:57Speaker 1: special effects. Never And I think you see that so
- 39:00Speaker 1: much more today. You can really feel the sort of
- 39:04Speaker 1: flatness because you can do anything and screen. It's really hard. Yeah, No,
- 39:10Speaker 1: I felt like I can't again. I feel like they
- 39:14Speaker 1: were all there, They were all there living in that world.
- 39:16Speaker 1: They're starting to get it right though, Like did you
- 39:19Speaker 1: see the Jungle Book? Yes, yeah, like that was amazing,
- 39:23Speaker 1: It really was. But for a while they're people kind
- 39:26Speaker 1: of went nuts. Well even still, even with like Fantastic Beasts,
- 39:28Speaker 1: for example, I just I feel so strongly that I
- 39:32Speaker 1: can see like Eddie Redmain sort of looking at his
- 39:35Speaker 1: finger where something is supposed to be, and I just
- 39:37Speaker 1: I'm so aware it's not there. I'm so painfully aware
- 39:41Speaker 1: it's not there. I don't know about that finger scene,
- 39:44Speaker 1: but well, I know what you're talking about. Like when
- 39:46Speaker 1: there's a lot of mystical fun toy things around, Well,
- 39:50Speaker 1: the eyelines never right. It's always, even with all the
- 39:54Speaker 1: technology they're of, just enough to where it looks like
- 39:57Speaker 1: the Three Company episode where Jack's twin visits, you know,
- 40:01Speaker 1: which I don't think it ever happened. Um. And the
- 40:05Speaker 1: lasting here is I looked up the movies of nineteen
- 40:09Speaker 1: eighty two mainly because I was like, why didn't I
- 40:11Speaker 1: see this? What was I going to see? So I
- 40:13Speaker 1: can know now what was what else was two? Well? Yeah,
- 40:17Speaker 1: and it's is a powerhouse of stuff. Well, movies back
- 40:20Speaker 1: then we're amazing. Yeah, and this is just like when
- 40:23Speaker 1: you look at the list of movies that are out
- 40:24Speaker 1: in seventeen and then this list. It's it makes you
- 40:28Speaker 1: want to cry because two Blade Runner, Ship Et the Thing,
- 40:35Speaker 1: Fast Times to Reach My High, Poultergeist, Wrath of con
- 40:39Speaker 1: Tutsie hands down. Probably Blade Runner to Tutsie was just
- 40:46Speaker 1: a a March release in nineteen eighty two. It wasn't
- 40:51Speaker 1: like Oscar season's coming up, like that's where it would
- 40:53Speaker 1: be slotted today. Is blowing my mind? Uh did I
- 40:58Speaker 1: say Fast Times, Reach High? Forty eight hours, Officer and
- 41:01Speaker 1: a Gentleman Annie? Oh my god? First Blood very big
- 41:05Speaker 1: for me, The Dark Crystal Gandhi Rocky three. Never say
- 41:11Speaker 1: Rocky three was very big for me, but I did
- 41:12Speaker 1: see Rocky three. That's where my priorities. Like, I mean,
- 41:15Speaker 1: there are a couple of movies that I wouldn't say, like,
- 41:17Speaker 1: oh my god, this is so great, but they were
- 41:18Speaker 1: big for me, Like this Beast Master was it was great.
- 41:22Speaker 1: But then Sophie's Choice World according to Garp, my favorite year,
- 41:26Speaker 1: the Secret of nim Diner year, Like this is just
- 41:29Speaker 1: a smattering. This isn't all the movie crazy in Hollywood
- 41:36Speaker 1: in the early eight I mean I could comfortably pick
- 41:38Speaker 1: some of my all time favorite movies. Just out of that,
- 41:41Speaker 1: you could stop Blade Runner, Et The Thing and Poultergeist,
- 41:45Speaker 1: and you could say, and no other movies were made
- 41:48Speaker 1: that year, and it would be like one of the
- 41:49Speaker 1: great years. The Thing I just saw on the big
- 41:51Speaker 1: screen at the arc Light and it beyond holds up. Yah,
- 41:55Speaker 1: that's amazing and super gruesome. Yeah, really gross. John Carpenter
- 42:01Speaker 1: the Man. Yeah, and well he did all his still
- 42:03Speaker 1: does all his on music. It's great. Yeah. Um, any
- 42:07Speaker 1: finishing thoughts on Tron, I love it, thumbs up, I
- 42:10Speaker 1: love you, Tron. I know that you're a movie even
- 42:13Speaker 1: though you were also a character in the movie named Tron.
- 42:15Speaker 1: But I just wanted I mean I was for the
- 42:17Speaker 1: longest time. I was like, if I have kids, I'm
- 42:19Speaker 1: naming my kid Flynn, no matter whether it's a boy
- 42:21Speaker 1: or No. I wouldn't name that no, because I really
- 42:25Speaker 1: love m Yeah, that'd be a funny name. Michael Chadwick Peterson.
- 42:31Speaker 1: It's just so good. I could call him MCP. That
- 42:33Speaker 1: would be a pretty slick move. Um. But Tron was
- 42:37Speaker 1: a character, but also the name of the security system,
- 42:41Speaker 1: that's right, the box lightner was program. Yeah, exactly, No,
- 42:45Speaker 1: one just got up and I walked in. My walked
- 42:48Speaker 1: He's done. That's what was confusing to me a little
- 42:51Speaker 1: bit about the movie, So all the different characters playing,
- 42:54Speaker 1: but that's It's like, but that's what it's about, dumb.
- 42:58Speaker 1: It was invented the program Tron, so that's what Tron
- 43:01Speaker 1: looked like. Tron looked like his user, and then Flynn
- 43:04Speaker 1: designed a ton of stuff. So that's why I like
- 43:07Speaker 1: when you go inside the beginning of the movie in
- 43:09Speaker 1: the tank, that's Flynn too, because he designed that program
- 43:12Speaker 1: in the tank. What about this scene with when they
- 43:16Speaker 1: when Cyndy Morgan and when Lacey under als and and
- 43:21Speaker 1: the scarecrow. First he was a scarecrow, right, he was?
- 43:26Speaker 1: He certainly wasn't as scarc I never saw that show,
- 43:29Speaker 1: but I just did the match real quick, like, um,
- 43:33Speaker 1: they walk in the first time they go to see
- 43:35Speaker 1: Jeff Bridges or Flynn, excuse me, and he's so overly
- 43:39Speaker 1: sweaty from playing the video game. At first, I was like,
- 43:43Speaker 1: is he really that sweaty? Because the armpit sweats like
- 43:46Speaker 1: out to his chest. Then his chest was sweaty through
- 43:49Speaker 1: the shirt. It's like, why are they doing that? And
- 43:52Speaker 1: he goes up and takes off his shirt, and I
- 43:53Speaker 1: was like, I think that's exactly why they did it. Yeah,
- 43:55Speaker 1: he takes off one shirt and puts on a different
- 43:57Speaker 1: shirt and they're both Flynn's video game like it's it.
- 44:00Speaker 1: But he takes it off in front of her because
- 44:02Speaker 1: they used to date. And then he had that sly
- 44:05Speaker 1: line about leaving the house messy or whatever, and then
- 44:08Speaker 1: she practically shoves Bruce box Lighter on the couch because
- 44:12Speaker 1: of the quip about her leaving her house messy relationships?
- 44:16Speaker 1: Am I right? I say that Toron is a go
- 44:21Speaker 1: to to understand relationships between the two people who care
- 44:27Speaker 1: about each other. No, probably not, but maybe between man
- 44:30Speaker 1: and computer, between man and computer, between a bit and
- 44:33Speaker 1: a program for that a little bit. No, Janet Varney,
- 44:39Speaker 1: thanks for coming into the pleasures. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
- 44:43Speaker 1: You've been doing this podcast for one hour in life
- 44:48Speaker 1: and you don't remember the bold I have clothes with
- 44:52Speaker 1: guilty pleasure? All right, what's your guilty pleasure? Let program? Well,
- 44:58Speaker 1: I did think about it because I didn't want it
- 45:00Speaker 1: to be a thing. Listen, First of all, how dare you?
- 45:03Speaker 1: And I said that in our text too, I said
- 45:05Speaker 1: don't you even pretend like my favorite movie can also
- 45:07Speaker 1: be a guilty pleasure. I will never call it a
- 45:08Speaker 1: guilty pleasure. But I was trying to think because I thought,
- 45:11Speaker 1: I want to want to have some pretentious luck like
- 45:13Speaker 1: you said, where someone's like, my guilty pleasure is the Godfather.
- 45:16Speaker 1: Shut up. Um. But it's kind of hard because I
- 45:20Speaker 1: don't have a lot of the like, oh, I know.
- 45:22Speaker 1: This is the same with reality television stuff like that.
- 45:24Speaker 1: I can't. I don't find that I have a lot
- 45:27Speaker 1: of like this is delicious, and I know I shouldn't,
- 45:30Speaker 1: but here I watch, you know, I feel I get
- 45:32Speaker 1: really impatient with stuff that this isn't good. So I
- 45:34Speaker 1: was trying to think of things that, um, that I
- 45:37Speaker 1: would watch anyway, and I think I actually wrote a
- 45:39Speaker 1: couple of them down. I know for sure that recently
- 45:42Speaker 1: on planes, I can't stop watching movies about horses, which
- 45:45Speaker 1: was never something I cared about, but all of a sudden,
- 45:48Speaker 1: Sea Biscuit seems like the best movie I've ever seen.
- 45:50Speaker 1: I watched Secretariat. Secretariat. They didn't have well, this is Delta,
- 45:53Speaker 1: and they have some old movies that you can watch.
- 45:55Speaker 1: I hadn't gotten to the horse Whisper, which I've never seen.
- 45:59Speaker 1: I probably won't watch war Horse, but suddenly suddenly I need, like, uh,
- 46:04Speaker 1: feel good horse movies when I'm on a plane, because
- 46:07Speaker 1: I'm too tired to enjoy anything else. So feel good
- 46:10Speaker 1: horse movies. Apparently that's a new thing. Um. And then
- 46:14Speaker 1: I also admitted to like beauty. Did you see that?
- 46:17Speaker 1: When you're a kid? Give a crap? I didn't give
- 46:20Speaker 1: a crap about horse movies. I did see The Black Stallion.
- 46:23Speaker 1: I barely remember it. Last Unicorn. That was a tough one. Um,
- 46:27Speaker 1: I will always, but I did, especially because I know
- 46:30Speaker 1: you like Jaws so much. I feel the same way
- 46:32Speaker 1: about Jaws. And I will see no but a shark movie,
- 46:37Speaker 1: not Sharknado, not like intentionally campy shark movies. But I
- 46:42Speaker 1: will give almost any shark based movie a chance. And
- 46:46Speaker 1: I love the movie Deep Bluesy. I love it. I
- 46:49Speaker 1: love it. I've watched it. I've seen it so many times.
- 46:52Speaker 1: If it's on I will watch it till the end.
- 46:55Speaker 1: I love it. I liked how unabashedly schlocky it was. Yeah,
- 46:58Speaker 1: it knew what it was and so it camped out
- 47:02Speaker 1: in a good way. But it was genuinely, still very
- 47:05Speaker 1: scary to me, even though the sharks got smarter because
- 47:08Speaker 1: they were injecting them with some sort of growth hormones
- 47:12Speaker 1: that they could cure Alzheimer's. That's a side effect the
- 47:15Speaker 1: shop Scott smart. The sharks got smarter, Chuck. That was
- 47:19Speaker 1: the big pull line from the trailer. I remember that,
- 47:22Speaker 1: and I was so star struck when uh, my friend Oscar, uh,
- 47:26Speaker 1: we were going to dinner with Oscar and Ursla, or
- 47:29Speaker 1: are dear friends of ours? And he said, I hope
- 47:30Speaker 1: you don't mind, our friends are gonna be joining us.
- 47:32Speaker 1: And it was the shark. It was the shark. No,
- 47:37Speaker 1: it was Saffron Burrows. And I I said, I in
- 47:39Speaker 1: a million years, I never thought I would meet Saffron Burrows.
- 47:43Speaker 1: Not a person that I think I traveled the same
- 47:44Speaker 1: circles with. Its very excited that I got to meet
- 47:48Speaker 1: Saffron Burrows and it was everything you thought. It was wonderful. Yeah,
- 47:54Speaker 1: she's just great. That was her line, wasn't it The
- 47:57Speaker 1: sharks smart? Yeah, she made those sharks smarter, she made
- 48:01Speaker 1: those she put us all at risk. She got Sam
- 48:04Speaker 1: Jackson munched. That's a great moment that was snatches him
- 48:08Speaker 1: I feel that that moment. I can't think of having
- 48:10Speaker 1: seen that anywhere before that movie, and I feel like
- 48:13Speaker 1: I've seen it a million times since. Yeah, and like
- 48:15Speaker 1: Snakes on a Plane was a direct descendant of of
- 48:18Speaker 1: Deep Blue Seed. Yeah, because I think Deep Blue Seed,
- 48:21Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think they were. Was that Renny
- 48:23Speaker 1: Harlan is it? Was it? Gosh, I don't know if
- 48:27Speaker 1: it was. It might be I might be making that up.
- 48:31Speaker 1: It was not Stephen Lisberger because he didn't direct anything else. Yeah,
- 48:34Speaker 1: he was like a Silicon Valley nerd who just went
- 48:36Speaker 1: right back to do with a couple of things. His
- 48:38Speaker 1: claim to fame was animaniacs before. That's how he got
- 48:41Speaker 1: a little juice in the industry. Oh yeah, Animaniac scread
- 48:47Speaker 1: and dough swinging Johnson. So anyway, those are a couple
- 48:54Speaker 1: of my pusure geldy pleasures. And I also, um, this
- 48:58Speaker 1: is probably too far on the side. This popped in
- 49:00Speaker 1: my mind. It was the first thing that popped in
- 49:02Speaker 1: my mind. And I and that doesn't mean that it's accurate,
- 49:05Speaker 1: But for some reason, the first thing I thought it
- 49:06Speaker 1: was Intolerable Cruelty with Love, that movie with Kevin Zada
- 49:10Speaker 1: Jones and and George Clooney. And I think the reason
- 49:13Speaker 1: I classify it as a guilty pleasure is because I
- 49:16Speaker 1: somehow know I'm supposed to not like it because it's
- 49:19Speaker 1: not full Cohen Brothers. Yes, and so I'm I've been
- 49:23Speaker 1: told it's terrible, do you know what I mean? Like
- 49:25Speaker 1: the society has told me it's terrible, unlike over the
- 49:29Speaker 1: worl out there or whatever, and so but that's so,
- 49:32Speaker 1: that was what the first thing that popped in mind.
- 49:33Speaker 1: I love that movie. Yeah, I don't like when people
- 49:35Speaker 1: I think there's two Cohen Brothers tears, and I love
- 49:40Speaker 1: that second tier when they're clearly just having a good
- 49:42Speaker 1: time making a comedy. I love those movies, yeah, like
- 49:46Speaker 1: Intolerable Cruelty and the one I really love is uh
- 49:51Speaker 1: Man with with Brad Pitt and Cluney Burn. After reading Burn,
- 49:55Speaker 1: after reading I think that I think I hated that
- 49:58Speaker 1: when I saw it, and now I like it. And
- 50:00Speaker 1: I didn't love Hale Caesar, And I'm wondering if in
- 50:02Speaker 1: a couple of years maybe I'll love that too, because
- 50:05Speaker 1: maybe it I was fine with it. Yeah, would that
- 50:07Speaker 1: it were that simple? Is like maybe laughed so hard
- 50:12Speaker 1: so good. But think is another one where I'm like,
- 50:14Speaker 1: is that one of the all time greatest movies probably
- 50:17Speaker 1: probably has one of the all time greatest endings of
- 50:19Speaker 1: any movie about an ending. Yeah, and that I saw that.
- 50:25Speaker 1: That that's kind of one of my friends and minds
- 50:26Speaker 1: from college favorite movie. So we watched it saw in
- 50:28Speaker 1: the theater, then watch it obsessively in college. And he
- 50:32Speaker 1: went on to be friends with Tony Shalub, who, like
- 50:35Speaker 1: in real life, I r L and he was so
- 50:38Speaker 1: good in that yea, so good. Yeah and that little
- 50:41Speaker 1: part and everything. How do you feel do you feelers
- 50:44Speaker 1: went well? I think let's have a postmortem on on camera.
- 50:47Speaker 1: It went great. I might do a little solo postmortem,
- 50:50Speaker 1: not tonight because I have to go to bed, because
- 50:54Speaker 1: it's like, um no, I think it went great. The
- 50:59Speaker 1: pilot episode like how I jammed in like eight of
- 51:01Speaker 1: my other favorite movies, and so I think that's kind
- 51:04Speaker 1: of takes them. I still was the first one to say, yeah,
- 51:06Speaker 1: that's kind of the point though. Screw you. Sam Levine's right,
- 51:11Speaker 1: Sam Man with Two Brains is really great. I could
- 51:15Speaker 1: quote the hell out of that movie. You know, kind
- 51:17Speaker 1: of a real dork, what for that? Movie. Yeah, I
- 51:19Speaker 1: just on my favorite movie that everything I'm naming is
- 51:21Speaker 1: just so dorky. But well, you went after tron Hard
- 51:26Speaker 1: and now that I know the whole story behind it,
- 51:28Speaker 1: like it's really it's a it's a real thing. Yeah,
- 51:30Speaker 1: it's I get it. You weren't seeking a NERD credit
- 51:34Speaker 1: or anything like that. No, no, no, let's ask you
- 51:39Speaker 1: to back off that for a second. Untrue. Um no,
- 51:43Speaker 1: this is great, all right. Well, thanks for coming in,
- 51:45Speaker 1: Janet Barney for sure number one. Thanks Chuck, here I go,
- 51:54Speaker 1: I guess, I guess. I ran away only after the
- 51:57Speaker 1: dr was closed. Man, that was just I'm just so
- 52:06Speaker 1: excited about the show. That could not have gone any better.
- 52:09Speaker 1: A new Janet was a great choice as guest number
- 52:11Speaker 1: one because she's, um, well she's a professional podcaster herself
- 52:16Speaker 1: and does interviews herself, so she knows how to how
- 52:18Speaker 1: to keep the conversation going like a real pro. So, um,
- 52:21Speaker 1: that was just a lot of fun. Janet. Her feelings
- 52:24Speaker 1: on tron were, Um, I was kind of wondering what
- 52:28Speaker 1: to expect on why that was her favorite pick, and
- 52:31Speaker 1: it was very heartwarming to know to me that that
- 52:34Speaker 1: was a movie that she and her dad uh, bonded
- 52:38Speaker 1: over and it was a very special film from her
- 52:39Speaker 1: childhood because of the cute little Tron game that she
- 52:42Speaker 1: used to play with her dad. So as we go
- 52:45Speaker 1: on with Movie Crush, I think it'll be super interesting
- 52:47Speaker 1: to see, uh, sort of the why behind why people
- 52:50Speaker 1: pick these favorite movies. And I suspect that moving forward,
- 52:55Speaker 1: we're gonna get quite a few that have a lot
- 52:58Speaker 1: of sentimental value, and that is certainly the case with
- 53:01Speaker 1: Janet here in Tron and Stand Against Evil, guys, I
- 53:04Speaker 1: am so excited. I love season one. Janet is so
- 53:07Speaker 1: funny and it everyone's just great. And season two actually
- 53:10Speaker 1: premiered yesterday, uh in real time, So November one premiered
- 53:15Speaker 1: on i f C. Check it out Stand Against Evil
- 53:18Speaker 1: season two. It's wonderful, and check out j V Club,
- 53:22Speaker 1: the j V Club podcast where Janet interviews um people
- 53:26Speaker 1: about their embarrassing high school years. It's really really good show.
- 53:29Speaker 1: So thanks to Janet for her time and until next week,
- 53:33Speaker 1: Well would kill you to spare a little popcorn? Maybe?
- 53:42Speaker 1: Movie Crush is produced, edited, engineered, and scored by Noel
- 53:46Speaker 1: Brown from our podcast studio at Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.